After the pool, Katrina and Jeff dressed and rented a motor scooter and were off to St. George for some sightseeing. A popular tourist spot is the Unfinished St. Peter’s Church. A plaque in front of the roofless stone structure read that construction on the church had begun in 1870 but faction infighting within the congregation led to a withdrawal of funding pledges and then a storm damaged the oddly beautiful gothic structure. In recent years, the structure was fortified so that the church could safely serve as a tourist magnet.

“I know that you aren’t a spiritual person, Kat,” Jeff began, “and for that matter neither am I, but I think given the unfinished and unsettled state of our lives, an unfinished church is the perfect place for us… to…”

“To pray,” Katrina asked?

“No, to hold each other’s hands and to allow the love we have to flow between us. For that matter, maybe that in and of itself is a prayer in its own right but whatever; I feel at peace here.”

“I feel at peace too, Jeff.”

Peace never lasts for long though, and Jeff’s cell phone broke the stillness. “Hello Audrey, what’s up?”

“I think that you, Donald and I need to talk, Jeff.”

“I thought we agreed to table discussion for now, Aud.”

“We did, but I have… well, Donald and I have discussed things further and we think that we need to discuss matters before we reboard the ship tomorrow morning.”

“Well, if it is that important to you Audrey, suppose we meet at the hotel bar and have a drink on one of the patios before supper. How is 6:30 for you?”

“Yes, thank you Jeff, 6:30 will be fine.”

Jeff noticed that Audrey had been stiff, almost tersely formal on the phone. He wondered briefly what this discussion would bring but then he caught Katrina’s eyebrow raised inquisitively raised and he said, “It looks like they want to talk Kat.”

“About?”

“She didn’t say but I told her that we’d meet them at 6:30 in the hotel bar.”

“We?”

Taking both of Katrina’s hands in his, Jeff said, “I would like for you to be there with me if you’re okay with it.

Later in the afternoon, Katrina and Jeff visited the Crystal Caves and marveled at the beautiful colors inside the cave when the lights were on and the frightening depth of the blackness when the tour guide momentarily switched off the lights.

From there, they scooted back to the hotel with Katrina holding Jeff tightly. At the bar, they found Audrey and Donald sitting at the bar. As the couple approached, Donald spoke and said, “Jeff, I thought the three of us could discuss our situation.” Jeff looked at Audrey and she would not meet his gaze.

Taking Katrina’s hand in his, Jeff said, “I think the four of us can discuss whatever needs discussion.”

“Uh, very well then, suppose we have our drinks delivered to the patio?”

At a secluded table, Donald began. “Jeff, I think that Audrey wants to speak first.”

For the first time, Audrey made eye contact with Jeff. “Jeff, I am very upset that you are cheating on me. I never signed on to you being with this woman.”

Taking Katrina’s hand Jeff said, “This woman’s name is Katrina, Audrey.”

“Okay, have it your way then, I never signed on to you being with this Katrina person.”

“Audrey, if we are to have a discussion, each of us is to be respected or we cannot continue.” Katrina squeezed Jeff’s hand lightly.

“Audrey, what has happened has happened and no one planned it. You two were off in your collar honeymoon and I was left in the cold. Katrina and I met and I will not apologize for the closeness that we found.”

Donald, spoke up. “Jeff, for my part, I am quite disturbed by the fact that you touched Audrey’s collar last evening. The collar is mine and you had no right to touch it or to pull Audrey towards you by it.”

“Jeff was incredulous. “Donald, do you hear yourself? You think that putting a slave collar on my wife’s neck gives you some right of exclusivity to her mind and body? That is the height of hubris.”

“Your wife wears my collar willingly, Jeff. She wants it.”

Jeff took Katrina’s hand and brought it to his lips; he kissed it and lowered it to her lap, still holding it. Turning to Audrey, Jeff spoke gently but firmly,” Audrey, I both accept and understand that you are deeply involved with Donald. I also understand that I had a big role in your feeling disrespected sexually and I am sorry for that and hope that in time you will forgive me.”

“If we are to repair our marriage, we will need professional help sorting it all out. Speaking for myself, I hope that’s how things work out for us. I will make you one promise though. I hate to sound threatening but I am sick of this collar business and so know this: if you are still wearing that thing in the morning, you will be served with divorce papers within a week of our arrival at home.”

“You are threatening me with divorce Jeff?”

“No, Audrey, I am telling you exactly how things are.”

Donald spoke up, “Now just you wait a minute Jeff!”

“No Donald,” Jeff said, rising to his feet, “just you wait a minute, in fact shut the fuck up, I am talking to my wife right now!”

Audrey spoke, “Jeff are you telling me that you want a divorce?”

“No Audrey, I want to heal our marriage not end it but in the interim I am telling you that this collar nonsense has to stop and I mean today!”

“Jeff, I cannot take it off. First, I promised and second, only Donald has the padlock key.”

“I see,” Jeff said with obvious agitation. He strode purposefully to the bar and returned with a large pair of shears. As Jeff strode directly towards Audrey, Donald stood to block his path. Jeff shoved and Donald fell back into his chair and sat there blinking. Jeff continued to Audrey and cut the leather strap from her neck. “I think this is yours, Donald,” Jeff said as he dropped the strap into Donald’s lap. Taking Audrey’s hand and pulling her to her feet, Jeff glared at Donald and said, “And I think this is mine!”

Jeff led a dazed looking Audrey to a table some twenty feet from the others and sat her down. He turned another chair to face her directly and took both of her hands in his. “Audrey, we both have some decisions to make over the rest of this cruise and in the near term afterwards as to whether this fantasy ends our marriage or if our marriage ends this fantasy. Either way, whatever you and Donald do together is your business but I will not have another day of your wearing his collar as though it supersedes our marriage!”

“Jeff…I…”

“Please let me finish Audrey. I feel as though our marriage is on a precipice and that you and I have too much invested for us to fall off. I also know that most of this is my fault. I understand that my sexual longings for the excitement of seeing you tease and please other men was over-controlling. It’s how my brain is wired and I hope that you can forgive me for that. I also know that I let this Donald thing go too far, way too far. I don’t hate the guy but right now I dislike him for edging me out of my own marriage. Hell, he even told me up-front that he was doing it! He told me that he was seducing me into seducing you and like an idiot I fell for that because, at the time, the risk that you might develop feelings for him put extra zing in the sexually jealous quivering in my gut. Christ, what is wrong with me that I didn’t see that?”

“Audrey, I want you, I want our marriage and I want for us to heal and I want never to take you for granted or to feel unappreciated or underappreciated again. Do you understand me? I haven’t the first clue as to how we can heal this and build a marriage that meets both of our needs but I want to try hard to make that happen. You were my goal when we first married and I lost sight of the prize. Now, you are my goal again and I hope that you both believe me and feel it inside.”

Tears stung Audrey’s eyes and her throat ached. “Jeff I am happy, sad, angry, embarrassed and I don’t know what all right now. You have taken me by complete surprise because I thought you – well, I don’t know what I thought that you thought. And, for awhile there, I didn’t care what you thought because I wanted to rub your nose in it and exert control over you, over our relationship and to completely dominate the sex.”

“Over the past days and weeks I have learned things, done things, and questioned long-held beliefs. I have done things that I am a little ashamed of and I have done things that fill me with pride and reward myself for finding the courage to do them. Some of that courage came from my anger towards you; so, call it revenge sex if you will.”

I know that the collaring was upsetting to you. For my part, I felt excited that Donald felt so strongly about me that he wanted me to wear a sign of that bond that is visible to the entire world. To be honest with you, I felt proud to wear a collar.” Audrey twisted her engagement ring and said, “I remember when you and I became engaged and for months I flashed this ring almost in people’s faces. I was proud for them to see that someone wanted me – chose me as his. Over the past year, I lost that feeling of being wanted and being connected to you and to wear a collar replaced that good feeling. People looked at me when I wore that collar. Some looked as though they understood, some looked confused and some looked like I was the whore of Babylon but they looked! They saw that someone wanted me because it was right there in their faces! I know that I like subordinate behavior and at the same time I think maybe there is a bit of the exhibitionist in me because I like being looked at – being noticed.”

“When we are home, would you like to wear my collar?”

Audrey trembled visibly.

“Oh my God, that just sent a shiver through me! Please let me think about this for a few days Jeff, because everything is so crazed right now but I am thrilled that you asked. Right now I would love to wear your collar but I don’t want to be up in Donald’s face with it so soon after you cut his collar from my neck and threw it into his lap, like a gauntlet being thrown. I feel like a fairy princess with two knights jousting over her hand. The thing about jousting is that someone might get hurt and I don’t want to hurt either of you.”

“Audrey, I am sorry for putting you into the back of our car with those men. I wish I was wired differently and I wish that I hadn’t pushed you into that. I never meant to degrade you or leave you feeling less than. If anything, I was putting you on a pedestal and worshipping you from the front seat. I was proud of how you excited those men, how you were so damned… well, so damned desirable!”

“Well, if we are being honest here, that wasn’t all bad – at least not at first. A part of me deep inside that I don’t always like admitting to was more than a bit tingly to be the ‘bad girl in the back seat.’ It was exciting to act slutty and to entertain two men at the same time. You watched from afar – aka the front seat. You ensured my safety while I fucked and sucked men whom I would never see again. That was my side of the fantasy and you made it safe for me to play out.”

“I know that I got stupid some of those times by having unprotected sex with some of them. We’re lucky that I didn’t become pregnant or pick up an STD. I hope that you will forgive me for this but once I pulled the condom off a man and took him back inside me because I wanted the feelings that come with risk taking.”

“Where did all this come off the rails for you, Audrey?”

“Well, no one thing got to me. Part of it is that I had no part in the selection process. I was expected to get into the car and be as intimate as a woman can possibly be with a man whom was picked for me. I began feeling like you were a pimp and I was some back alley whore. I began losing respect for both of us.”

“Audrey, I am so sorry.”

“Me to Jeff, I probably should have spoken up at the time. Actually, I tried to once but we got interrupted by a phone call and I just didn’t get back into the conversation. I think my final straw was the guy who fucked my ass. Jeff, I don’t know who he was and I doubt if you do either but honestly, he smelled bad and he was rough and unkind. I thought he was going to do my pussy doggie style and he jammed himself dry, right into my rectum. I felt impaled! It was like someone shoved a file up my ass and all I could hear through the pain was you cheering him on to make my ass hurt. Jeff I hated him for that and I hated you even more.”

“Audrey, I am ashamed about that, I…”

“Jeff, that’s why I did, well, you know, the candle.”

“I know Audrey. It’s okay now; we both have a lot of healing to do and a lot of self-examination and learning.”

“And compromise,” Audrey added.

“Yes, and compromise.”

“Speaking of compromise Jeff, you have a girlfriend over there and I have a boyfriend six feet from her. What are we to do about them?”

Audrey, I think our relationship is moving in the right direction and I want to show both of them something.”

“Show them what?”

“Audrey, please remove your wedding band and engagement ring and then hand them to me.”

“Jeff, you’re scaring me.”

“Trust me Audrey, please?”

Audrey removed her rings and handed them to Jeff. Katrina and Donald looked on with rapt attention and confusion. The moment was one of those pregnant pauses where no one seems to know what to think.

Jeff knelt on one knee and offered the engagement ring to Audrey and said, “Audrey, I want you for the rest of my life, will you be with me?”

“Her eyes filled with tears and Audrey said, “Oh my God, Jeff, yes, please put that ring on my finger where it has always belonged.”

Neither looked at anything but each other’ eyes. Had they looked, they would have seen happy admiring tears in Katrina’s eyes and a dropped jaw on Donald’s face.

“Audrey, I propose to place this wedding band on your finger when the ship docks and we say goodbye to Donald at the airport. Are you okay with that?”

“What does that mean, Jeff?”

“To me, it means that I realize that in love and fairness you are going to have to let go of Donald easily but not completely. I do not expect you to end your relationship with him and I am okay if you still want to see him occasionally after we normalize our marriage whatever the hell ‘normal’ means.”

“Uh, will you want to watch us together because I don’t know how he…”

“I don’t think so Audrey, that might be too, err, dicey. Maybe it would be enough if you told me all about it afterwards. At this point, I don’t know what or how you and I will evolve sexually but let’s let’s work on the love for now and see where the sex takes us.”

“And for tonight, Jeff?”

“Suppose that you and Donald do as you wish tonight and in part for the rest of the trip except that tomorrow night on ship, I want you in my bed. Donald can choose to do whatever he wishes but you will be in my bed and you will be fresh as a daisy for me.”

“Yes Sir, Captain,” Audrey said with a smile and a mock salute. “I will be there with bells on. Well, actually with nothing on but your favorite perfume. I have the impression that we are to be swingers then?”

“For now, yes, and that swinging will be within a very exclusive and limited club of our mutual choosing. How does that sit with you Audrey?”

“For now, I can live with that Jeffrey, and I look forward to tomorrow night with you.”

Jeff escorted his wife hand-in-hand back to her stunned boyfriend. “Congratulations.” Donald said.

“On?”

“On growing a pair.”

“Donnie boy, you really need to learn when to realize when you are coming out ahead and when it’s time to shut up.”

Jeff left his wife’s stunned boyfriend, took Katrina by the hand and strode back into the hotel. “Jeff, I am so fucking hot right now!” Katrina said. “I honestly don’t remember when I was this turned-on! Seriously, I am so wet that I need to stop by the ladies room and tidy up before this only set of clothes I have to wear today gets the crotch stained! Then, take me back to our room and nail me to the sheets!”

“Don’t wipe off all that moisture Kat, leave some for me.”

“Yes Sir,” Kat said. Funny, that was the second time in three minutes when the two beautiful women in his life said ‘yes sir’ to him. Jeff really felt like the king of the world.

It came as no surprise to Jeff that his wife and Donald did not return to the hotel room that night. He would learn later that they had ‘won’ a lottery drawing of some 138 empty staterooms in the other ship still in port next to theirs. They had returned to the ship to see what the current status was and Audrey saw her name on one of the PowerPoint presentations.

Katrina hadn’t been the only one turned on by Jeff’s confronting his wife and her lover. Seeing Donald sitting squat on his ass and submissive in that patio chair had left Jeff feeling hot, powerful and somehow even more bonded to Katrina despite his newfound passion for his wife. Jeff knew that just as Donald would remain an important part of Audrey’s future, Katrina would be part of his. Jeff knew that Katrina standing by him in the confrontation had given him the courage to speak his mind and then some.

Back at the hotel, their coupling was frantic, almost violent. Jeff pile-drove his cock into Katrina’s sex with consummate abandon. Katrina grunted, moaned, cursed and prayed as Jeff delivered the goods. They made love twice more that night but with more calm, gentleness and resolve. They slept bundled in each other’s arms.

In the morning, they made love yet again. This was a position they never had tried before. They had been flicking through the adult movies on TV for inspiration and they tripped over a few seconds of two lesbian women scissoring. “Let’s try that,” Katrina said. She and Jeff got into a scissors position with his penis inside her and they both rocked and ground their nether regions into each other. Suddenly, Jeff nearly bolted! Katrina was sucking his big toe and the intense sensitivity nearly made him crazy. The feeling was akin to having two cocks, one fucking and one being sucked vigorously. Jeff, in turn began sucking one of Katrina’s big toes and together, the couple thrashed on the bed until Katrina came in a long stream of ejaculate that literally splashed off of Jeff’s stomach and chest! Jeff came scant seconds later, with a force that left a pleasant ache in his balls.

They had a few hours before the ship’s departure and so, famished, they had` brekky at the hotel buffet. Katrina shared that she hoped that her marriage to John would remain intact and that he would get help for his drinking. On the other hand, her newfound love of Jeff gave Katrina the resolve she needed to become intolerant of any abuse whether verbal, emotional or physical. She could heal her marriage to John or she could leave it in confidence and hope for her future. Jeff wasn’t her counselor by any stretch of the imagination but he would be her sounding board, friend and lover.

They stopped by the hotel gift shop and Jeff bought a pretty diamond pendant for Katrina. “It is beautiful Jeff; thank you.”

“No; thank you Katrina for entering my life. You know what they say, diamonds are forever.”

On the sixth deck elevator, the pair kissed and cradled each other warmly. “I love you Jeff,” Katrina said, “I always will.”

“And I you Kat. And I always will, too.”

### End ###